AGL Live Session: Pool Kids – “Erso”

Posted: 16th November, 2018 by admin

Photo by: Mitchel Worley

Pool Kids craft waves of intensity and emotion on “Erso,” the single from their latest release, Music to Practice Safe Sex To. The mathy Florida four-piece performs the song in our latest AGL live session and its a fierce combination of evocative instrumentation and unmistakable attitude.

We caught up with vocalist/guitarist, Christine Goodwyne, to talk about the band’s inception, life after their latest release, the depths of “Erso,” songwriting as an outlet, and highlights from the session.

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Can you give me a quick background on the band? What’s your story?

Pool Kids started as a two-piece with just Caden and I (Christine). I had all the second guitars and harmonies written out, and the two of us were already recording the record with all the completed parts, but it took us a while to find good bandmates to actually join and play the parts live. We really wanted to wait until we found people that were good PEOPLE in addition to being good musicians, because we had just come fresh out of a band breakup that- to put it vaguely- was caused by questionable character of the other band members. We are so happy with who we ended up finding [Nicolette Alvarez (bass), and Alex Mayweather (second guitar)] because now we have a big ol’ happy friend fam with people we trust and love who also happen to fucking shred at their instruments.

How has life been since “Music to Practice Safe Sex To” was released? How has it felt to share these songs with others?

It’s been a mix of things, mostly amazing! The record has been received SO much better than we could have imagined, we’ve reached WAY more people than we thought we would, and we’re starting to head towards our goals a lot faster than we thought we were going to. A lot of fans have reached out to us saying how our music has effected them, and I can’t even accurately explain how important and amazing that is to me.

But since the record release, I have moved to Pensacola and Alex has moved to Georgia, so it hasn’t been fun being all separated. We of course are still making tours possible, and those times are so refreshing, but it would be so great if we could be closer. We have vague plans to make that happen in the near-ish future though! Until then we will continue to live our isolated lives and use the depression to fuel our next release, haha. I’ve been working on the songs for the next LP!

To me, “Erso” seems to act as a loose timeline of realization that choreographs specific moments of the frustration, and ultimately, letting go of an emotionally imbalanced relationship. What does this song mean to you?

I’d say that’s a pretty accurate interpretation of the song. It is actually a song about the bandmates in the previous band I mentioned earlier. That was the first band I had ever been in, and that band meant the world to me. I had so many plans with that band and I really put everything into it. When Caden and I had to make the decision to end it, I was very, very upset. At first I was devastated and honestly mourned it the way someone would a relationship type breakup, haha. I drank a lot and cried HYSTERICALLY for weeks. Eventually that sadness turned into more of an anger, because what was taken from me was completely due to someone else’s mistakes. I had done nothing wrong, yet all of the hard work and goals and dreams I had with this music had to be completely thrown away and I had to start COMPLETELY from scratch. I really didn’t like that I had to start a whole new project from scratch even though I was basically weeks away from being ready to release an EP with that band, but it ended up being amazing because I was forced to finally front my own band. So this song is honestly about the turning point of my sadness over those severed ties turning into anger, and me taking back what was mine and gaining the confidence to finally front my own band.

How does it feel to let emotions like this express themselves through song? Is songwriting an important outlet for you?

When I write songs that come from a strong emotional place, it makes it feel like the pain was worth something. But that’s only if I like the song, haha. When I’m able to write something that I’m really proud of that wouldn’t be the same if I hadn’t gone through that pain, then it makes the hurting not feel like a total waste because I got something really nice out of it. Like a lot of times if I try to write something when I’m happy, it sounds like shit. So then when I’m sad it’s like “well, at least I can have a chance at writing something decent”. The real nightmare is when I’m sad and I STILL end up writing stuff that sounds like shit. Then I just get depressed and lose all motivation to even write or do much of anything really.

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